


Starstruck

by exopoliticians



Category: Muse (Band)
Genre: AU, Aliens, Also this is my AU so I get to make the rules, I’ll probably add more tags later but this is all I can think of for now, Loosely based off of Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, Multi, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, The ships work well for this story trust me, Writing in 3rd person omniscient is hard, idiots to lovers, inconsistent updates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 16:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17707808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exopoliticians/pseuds/exopoliticians
Summary: Matthew Bellamy was bored with his dull life. However, after he befriended Chris, a man who he met by chance, his life would soon be turned upside down.//work one of potentially many////chapters beta read by my friends ezri and gen//





	1. Chapter 1

Matthew Bellamy, for twenty-three years, had lived an ordinary life. He had an ordinary job, lived an ordinary apartment, had ordinary friends, experienced ordinary days. He had never left Devon, but he did move to Plymouth after finishing his studies. He himself was not ordinary, however. He was what one might call “eccentric” or “out there”. At a young age, he had taken an interest in “strange” things. While it was common for children to be interested in space, most of them didn’t start theorizing about potential alien life. Nor did most watch hours upon hours of sci-fi shows whenever they could’ve been doing more productive things. When he wasn’t watching another Star Trek rerun, he was learning how to play the piano and guitar. So, needless to say, ordinary never applied to Matthew.

Perhaps that was why he was so bored with life. He knew he had so much potential, and what did he waste that on? A fucking English degree. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but there was only so much you could do with it. Instead of being the aspiring author he was hoping to be, he was stuck as an editor. It was better than nothing, though it was definitely not what he wanted. He knew he should’ve gone with the music degree, at least he could’ve done something with it.  
Matthew supposed he was one of the reasons he was living such an unfulfilling life.

On a particularly plain Tuesday, Matthew was on his way to the bakery. He always stopped there after finishing up work, no matter how late it was. He had been there often enough that the people working there knew him by name, which was actually quite impressive because he didn’t actually remember ever giving them his name.  
He wasn’t quite paying attention to his surroundings. He had a terrible habit of spacing out, and unfortunately for him, that usually led to trouble. Today, he ran right into someone.

Matthew stumbled backwards and immediately returned to reality. “Hey, uh, I’m sorry-”

“No, no, it was my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

Matthew took a few seconds to get a decent look at who he just ran into. Definitely taller than him (even though that wasn’t exactly hard to achieve), short curly hair, round glasses, clothes that just _screamed_ 80s college student…  
Matthew decided that, while this man was cute, he wanted to befriend him.

“Is that an X-Files shirt?” the man asked.

Matthew looked down at his shirt. Oh, it was. He had just thrown it on this morning honestly.

“Yeah, are you a fan?”

The man smiled. How he could get any cuter was beyond Matthew, but it happened. “I am, actually! I’ve been trying to get caught up though.”

Alright, so he had just run into this guy, and now he was making conversation with him. Not something that he would have ever expected, but hey, it was a nice change. Matthew found himself smiling too.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Chris. Chris Wolstenholme.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Chris. I’m Matthew.”

Chris Wolstenholme had quite the predicament. It was more or less a good one, but a predicament nonetheless. The predicament was that he was stuck on Earth. Initially, he had meant to leave much earlier. A few years of research was more than sufficient for what he needed it for, but unfortunately he had miscalculated how long it would take for someone to pick him up. Instead of three years of being on Earth, he had been here for seven. Again, it wasn’t all too bad. He did miss his home planet though. This star the humans called the Sun simply wasn’t as good as Vega. Then again, a lot of things weren’t as good as Vega, but Chris supposed he was a little biased.

Chris had tried to pick a name that wouldn’t give anything away. He couldn’t have Earth knowing there were aliens around quite yet. He had done his research, and the name “Christopher” was apparently very popular. Perfect! However, he had chosen a surname that was similar to his actual surname. It translated surprisingly well, but there weren’t many “Wolstenholmes” around.

If anyone asked what he was doing, Chris always replied that he was a freelance artist. People always believed him, especially with the way he dressed and with the way he acted. He was a tad too eccentric for any normal human being. He tended to weird them out, but he didn’t know why. He didn’t say anything wrong, did he?  
No, he didn’t think he did. Humans were just odd.

Chris supposed that running into Matthew could count as a predicament, but it was also a very good one. There was something about Matthew that was just _different_ from the other humans, but he couldn't quite say what was different. It was refreshing, something he needed.

In typical Chris fashion, he fell in love instantly. He needed to stop doing this, it was a problem.

Somehow, the two of them had ended up getting coffee together. It wasn't every day you ran into someone who liked X-Files, and Matthew thought Chris was a pretty intriguing guy.

“The thing is, Chris, there have to be aliens out there. There's no possible way that humans are the only intelligent beings in the universe.”

Chris thought that was pretty funny all things considered. “You're probably right. What do you think aliens look like?”

Matthew hummed. “Well, there's the grey aliens yeah? With the huge black eyes and big heads who abduct people to probe them and all.”

The grey aliens did in fact exist, but they didn’t abduct humans just to probe them. Sure, probing was apart of the process, but they conducted a lot of research to see if humans were as intelligent as they claimed. The research concluded that they were not only unintelligent, but _significantly_ unintelligent. Chris felt no need to bring this up.

“Grey aliens? Is that it?” he asked.

“No! No, of course not. I mean, Martians probably exist too, but I can only see them as little green men.”

Matthew had no way of knowing that Martians looked quite human except for the way they dressed. He was quite content in believing that they were just little green men however. It just seemed easier to accept that.  
Chris wanted to correct this way of thinking, but that would create a few problems. For one, he barely knew Matthew. Casually slipping in the fact that he wasn't human would be either completely unbelievable or just flat out shocking. Two, he didn't want to say anything about that in public.

“So, we have grey aliens and Martians.”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing else?”

Matthew shrugged. He could bring up the aliens from Star Trek, but he didn't want to out himself as a fan. Especially because he tended to ramble. A lot. And people didn't like when he rambled a lot.

“There has to be more. Who knows, maybe there's even Vulcans.”

Matthew giggled nervously. He just couldn't help himself, goddammit. Hopefully Chris didn’t see him as too much of a nerd now. Chris’ eyes lit up a little. Star Trek was the one show that came remotely close to accurately portraying what space and different aliens were really like. The only other show that did that was Doctor Who.

“You’re a Star Trek fan and an X-Files fan?” Chris asked.

“ _You’re_ a fan of Star Trek?”

And so the conversation took a turn for the better. Their conversation was certainly disruptive to everyone in their general vicinity, but it’s not like they cared. They were too caught up in discussing Spock and Jim’s entire dynamic throughout the show. Matthew’s coffee had gone cold by the time they finished up, but he finished it anyways.

“Y’know, I’m glad I ran into you,” Matthew said.

“Really?” Chris asked. His voice had raised half an octave which happened quite a lot whenever he was flustered.

“Yeah! You’re a really cool guy.”

Chris smiled. That felt incredibly good. He usually only got compliments on his appearance, which was nice and all, but every compliment about his personality was special to him.

“You’re not too bad yourself.”

Matt ran his hand through his hair, then started to rub his neck. It was more or less a nervous habit that he had developed whenever he was young, and it just sort of stuck. If you knew him long enough, it was easy to pick up whenever Matthew was flattered or nervous.

Chris wanted to see Matthew again. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his trusty pen and scribbled his phone number and address on a spare napkin.

“Here,” he said, pushing it towards Matthew. “Sorry if you can’t read my handwriting, it’s pretty bad.”

Matthew looked at the writing on the napkin. Honestly, it was a lot better than his own handwriting. “This your address?”

“No, it’s the Prime Minister’s.”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “Oh, fuck off. I might not call you now, Mr. Snark.”

Chris snorted. He had known a Mr. Snark before, and a Mrs. Snark. A whole family of Snarks even. It was so funny to him now that he almost started laughing uncontrollably.

“You won’t have anyone to talk to about Star Tr-”

“Fine, fine, I’ll fucking call you tomorrow. Prick.”

Matthew meant nothing by it, he was grinning. This was the fastest he had ever made a friend. He intended to keep Chris as his friend for as long as he could.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“I’m sure you are.”

After wrapping up a few more things, the two went their separate ways. Both of them were very happy. Chris was glad he could actually hold a conversation with someone smart. Matthew was glad that he was looked at as an actual person for once. However, he was not too happy to be returning to his dull, ordinary life. For once his daily routine was broken. For _once_ he was genuinely happy to be talking to someone. Chris made him feel...whole. It was fucking strange since he had literally met the man today. Maybe, he thought, just maybe Chris would save him from his boring life.

Little did he know, he was right. But he could have never predicted how right he was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed chapter 1!!! i have a lot planned for this fic so stay tuned  
> and also, since i’m writing this one currently, i’m taking a small break from writing my other fic.  
> kudos/comments appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

_April 19th, 2016._  
_Somewhere in Florida…_

Jeremy Palmer was sat in what he dubbed his “office”. It was really just a room filled with four computers, two cork boards, and a whiteboard. He spent most of his time in this room. He had devoted most of his life to researching the possibility of alien life, after twenty years of gathering evidence, he was so close to figuring everything out. His husband Nick worried about him sometimes, he knew, but he couldn’t give up. Not now.  
The gentle beeping of the computers was nothing new to him. One of them was monitoring any anomalies in the atmosphere. His time working for the government had its perks. The other three he used to store his evidence and research. And to do math. So much math. Calculating the probability of an alien invasion was hard work. His cork boards were filled with the most compelling evidence that he had. The whiteboard was simply for writing his ideas out in color.

No work was getting done. Jeremy sighed. Maybe Nick was right. Maybe this was all for nothing. He was about to get up and leave, but then the computer monitoring the atmosphere started beeping a lot more than usual. Jeremy checked the computer. He stared at the monitor in awe. There were _thousands_ of what could only be UFOs on screen. Aliens were about to invade Earth, and Jeremy was the only man who knew.

Well, not really. All of the world governments knew this. He was just the first civilian to know. If he had finished his calculations, he would’ve seen the probability of an invasion was a shocking 99.9%. The governments knew this too. However, what Jeremy or the world governments did not know was the name of the aliens they were about to be dealing with.

The Zetas were perfectly content with that. They always had a flair for the dramatic. And that meant they would wait to make their grand appearance.

—  
_April 20th, 2016._

Matthew always hated the rain. Ironic since it always seemed to be fucking raining in England this time of year. It was just his luck that he was stuck here. It wasn’t all bad admittedly. But most of the time, it sucked, as he so eloquently put it.  
Today he was visiting Chris at his flat. Time had really just gone by. It had already been six entire months since he had first met the man. It certainly didn’t feel like half a year. Hell, Matthew had gotten so comfortable with him that it felt like he had known him for his entire life. Chris was really something alright.

The walk to Chris’ flat was miserable. Matthew’s umbrella had been blown out of his hands by a sudden gust of wind, and he had ultimately lost it entirely, even after chasing after it for a few minutes. He was soaked and cold when he arrived. God, even his fucking socks were wet. Gross.

“Cheers?”

“In the living room!”

Chris was setting up the WiiU since Matthew seemed to only want to play Mario Kart at his place for some reason. He smiled whenever Matthew called him ‘Cheers’. It was a nickname that he had made up when extremely drunk and had to have Chris walk him home. Apparently that was the only memory Matthew had of that night, which was probably a good thing to be honest. Matthew’s drunken reasoning for giving Chris that nickname was that he was “a very happy man” and he “always put everyone in a good mood”.  
Chris supposed that was true enough.

“Uh, yeah, I kind of have a small...problem.”

“Which is?”

Matthew rubbed his neck. “I got caught in the rain, and I’m, uh, fucking soaked.”

Chris sighed. He couldn’t say he was surprised. Matthew was a bit of a disaster at times. And at times, he really meant a lot of the time.

“What do you mean by-”

Chris stopped himself mid-sentence once he saw Matthew. Oh, stars above, he really was soaked. The poor man was shivering, and water was actually dripping off of him. Chris frowned. Matthew smiled.

“I promise, I had an umbrella.”

Chris shook his head. “I’m sure you did. You’re going to catch a cold, I swear…”

Matthew shrugged. He had done dumber things in his life, and this wasn’t the worst of them. Besides, what was the harm in a cold? Chris knew exactly what Matthew was thinking and he was now escorting him to his bedroom. Matthew, of course, knew exactly what this meant since something similar had happened before.

“Chris, I’m _fine_ ,” Matthew groaned. “Just give me a towel or something to dry off with!”

“You can dry yourself off after you change.”

“You’re such a fucking dad.”

Matthew grumbled after Chris left him to change, and after he threw a towel into the room too. He stripped out of his wet clothes, and tossed them into a pile for now. He dried off before changing. Chris’ clothes were always too big for him, but at least they were warm.

“I can’t believe you didn’t even wear a jacket,” Chris said upon hearing Matthew had left his room.

“Fuck off,” was all Matthew replied with. He wanted to dry his clothes in peace.

Matthew threw his clothes into the dryer. It would only take ten minutes for his clothes to be done. Thank god. It’s not like he didn’t like Chris’ clothes, but it would be kind of weird to leave his flat with them on. He nearly tripped over the pajama bottoms as he walked into the living room. Chris snickered. Matthew threw the nearest pillow at him.

“You look like the Cheshire Cat,” Chris commented.

“It’s your shirt!”

Chris was grinning. He liked teasing Matthew, it was something he was good at. Besides, it took his mind off of how fucking cute Matthew looked right now. His clothes made him look smaller than he actually was. It was hard for him to keep his feelings in check, but it was especially hard to do it at times like now.  
Because, oh yeah, he was still hopelessly in love with Matthew.

Just ten minutes. Ten fucking minutes until Matthew had his own clothes again.

Ten minutes, funnily enough, was the amount of time the Zetas needed to get everything in order. The pilots were waiting for the “okay” to put down their cloaking devices. One specifically was quite annoyed about the whole thing.

“Can’t we just put down the cloaking device now? This whole thing is making me antsy.”

“We have orders.”

“Fine, fine, orders are orders. But the one thing I _still_ don't understand about this is why the higher ups assigned us Terran names. Our actual names are perfectly fine!”

“I've already told you, Terrans can't pronounce them. They're too stupid. Now stop complaining, Dominic, and get used to it.”

—

_Five minutes remaining._

The world leaders were prepared. Or at least they thought they were. They would never be prepared for what the Zetas were about to bring. No one ever was.

_Four minutes remaining._

Dominic was more antsy than before, and fidgeting around more than usual. His co-pilot was getting annoyed with him at this point. Nothing good was going to fucking happen on Terra and he knew it.

_Three minutes remaining._

Jeremy had a very bad feeling about today. Those aliens should’ve arrived by now. Maybe he was worrying too much. Maybe this was all just a big hoax. He really hoped it was.  
He told Nick that he loved him. It had been awhile since he had last said that.

_Two minutes remaining._

Chris and Matthew were wrestling. Mario Kart always ended like this since Matthew was a bit of a sore loser. Like always, Chris had Matthew pinned down. Matthew didn’t really want to hurt Chris, so he didn’t kick as hard.

“Just let me fucking win next time! You always beat me at Rainbow Road.”

“Sucks to suck.”

“Fuck you!”

_One minute remaining._

Matthew had gotten himself out from under Chris somehow. He had only just remembered that his clothes were almost dried. Chris was surprised that he remembered, Matthew had a tendency to forget a lot of things. Chris got off of the floor, deciding that the couch was probably a lot more comfortable than hardwood flooring.

Dominic had decided that he would rather not put the cloaking device down. Or even be in the damn cockpit at all. He was stressed, and when he was stressed, he didn’t act rationally. He needed a nap, so just to piss off his co-pilot, he left to take one right before the job was supposed to be done.

Matthew was sat on his phone now. Only thirty-four seconds until he could get his own clothes. Yes, he had set a timer. No, he wasn’t ungrateful that Chris let him borrow some clothes for awhile. They were just too big on him, and it was kind of embarrassing him in some odd way.

Chris was very suddenly on edge. Something wasn’t right. He got up from the couch and looked outside. Cloudy, but otherwise normal. Why was he feeling like this? Everything was fine. It was just a normal Wednesday.

Matthew’s timer went off. The Zetas filled the skies.

“You have got to be fucking _kidding_ me,” Chris whispered.

Matthew was none the wiser to the actual alien invasion going on. He was just content that his clothes were dry. And warm. Very warm. He decided to change right then and there since he didn’t have any shame. Chris on the other hand was trying to decide, very quickly, what the best way to break it to Matthew that he wasn’t human. He never thought it would come to this, so he never really gave it much thought.

“Hey, Cheers, do you wanna-”

Matthew was at a complete loss for words the moment he looked out the window He got closer to it to get a better look outside. A few things ran through his mind as he looked at the literal thousands of what could only be spaceships in the skies. The first was ‘HOLY SHIT’, the second was ‘I fucking knew that there were aliens’, and the third wasn’t really a thought, per se, it was more of an _intense_ excitement. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out the first time.

“Chris, do you-?”

“Yeah, alien ships? I see them perfectly fine. I thought the clouds would’ve fucking hidden them or something…”

Matthew stared at him. “How can you be so fucking calm? There’s literally UFOs outside right now! This is amazing!” He paused. “Or absolutely horrible. But…whatever! Aliens, Chris! They’re here and Doctor Who was right, I always knew they’d come to England first…”

Chris sighed. Stars, Matthew was cute, but now wasn’t the time. He grabbed Matthew by the shoulders. Matthew shut up immediately. Chris looked completely serious. That never happened. Never in the six months that Matthew had knew him had Chris ever been this way. Something was up.

“Matt, I need you to listen to me and listen well. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Alright…” Chris loosened his hold on Matthew’s shoulders just a bit. “I’m an alien. My home planet orbits the star of Vega, and my real name isn’t Chris. I mean, obviously, but…”

Chris looked behind him for a second, just glimpsing at the ships hanging in the sky. No wonder he felt uneasy before. Nothing good ever came with the Zetas. “But that’s not important. Do you believe me?”

Matthew sputtered. “What? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, right? You? An alien?”  
He smiled nervously. God he hoped Chris was kidding. He had to be kidding, right? After all, his best friend couldn’t be an alien. He was too human to be one. Whatever that meant.

“God, Matt, I don’t want to do this,” Chris sighed. “But...but it’ll prove my point.”

He cupped Matthew’s face, pressing down ever so slightly. Matthew furrowed his brows. “Chris, what-”

He gasped. It was like a switch had been flipped in his brain. He saw stars, planets, different civilizations...it was so beautiful. But also too much at the same time. There was so much information being transferred into his mind in such a short amount of time that he couldn’t take much more of this.

“Chris, stop it. Chris, I…”

And as soon as it had started, the visions or _whatever_ that was stopped. Matthew didn’t know what to do with himself.

“I’m sorry, but I had to do that. Do you believe me now?”

Matthew nodded. “I do. Yeah, I do. Holy fuck…”

“Look, there’s not much time, so I need you to listen for real this time.”

Matthew wasn’t sure if he could. “I’ll...I’ll try my best.”

“That’s all I need. Those ships are Zeta ships. Now I don’t know how long the Earth governments have been in contact with the Zetas, or even how they got in contact with them, but I know what they’ll do to Earth.”

Matthew was suddenly very alert. This definitely wasn’t as cool as he thought it was at first. Well, it still was pretty cool actually, but now also terrifying. It was complicated. “What will they do?”

“They’ll take over, give false hope to the nations, and then enslave the entire human race. I’ve seen it happen with other races before. And I don’t want to see it happen to you.”

“Wh-what? What do you mean?”

“I can save you from this. You’ll have time to get whatever you feel you need from your place, but we’re going to leave this planet before the Zetas can take over.”

Chris looked Matthew directly in his eyes. Matthew could see a new kind of fire burning behind them. It was powerful, unlike anything he had seen before. Chris had only been like this one other time before in his life. And stars, that had been one hell of time if he said so. “What do you say? Will you come with me?”

“Absolutely,” Matthew said immediately. “I will abso-fucking-lutely come with you. But...but how will we get out of here?”

Chris grinned. “Easy. We steal one of their ships.”

—

Matthew was buzzing with excitement now. He was finally going to leave his shitty life for good. Goodbye boring job, hello space travel. He had a large backpack that had basic necessities in it, such as clothes, his several charging cables and headphones, several notebooks, plenty of pens and pencils, and a few…more _personal_ items. He also, much to Chris’ complaining, brought his guitar along with him. He was not leaving Earth without it. He would rather be enslaved to an alien race than leave it behind.

Chris had explained that Zetas, while powerful, were a bit dim when it came to hiding their ships while on planets. Of course, they couldn’t all park on Earth, but quite a few of them did. Chris knew that there would be one around somewhere.  
The governments had already told everyone that the Zetas were peaceful and were simply helping the entire world out. Chris knew that was bullshit. He hoped the leaders could see that sometime soon, though they would probably be too stupid to realize it before it was too late. It was a shame, he had actually liked Earth.

  
Finding the ship had been easy enough. It was literally parked in the nearest open space in town. Matthew was frankly unimpressed.

“That’s their ship?” Matthew asked, pulling on one of the sleeves of the fleece jacket Chris had let him borrow. “It…”

He gestured vaguely with his free hand. “It looks fucking cliche up close! And it’s like, tiny...I was expecting bigger.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “You’re ridiculous. You were just fanboying over these things half an hour ago.”

“Yeah, well, at least the Zetas don’t look _boring_.”

The Zetas were a humanoid race, however much like a certain Star Trek race, lacked visible pupils. They also had markings under their eyes that kind of looked like a raccoon’s own markings. Except unlike a raccoon, the Zetas didn’t look like they were wearing a mask, and theirs could be any color imaginable. It was also common to see patches of whatever color the face markings were on a Zeta’s body. Unremarkable, really, but humans were easily impressed.

“You’d be surprised how high tech these ships are,” Chris shrugged. “In fact, try to get near it.”

Matthew frowned, but walked towards the ship anyway. God, it really just looked like your typical UFO. Yeah, it was cool and all to see it, but the design choice could’ve been-  
He felt a small shock as he drew closer to the ship, and he immediately jumped back.

“Just as I thought,” Chris said. Matthew jumped again, since when was he right next to him? “They put up some sort of force field that would keep humans out, only humans though…”

“How the hell will I get in then?”

Chris had no choice but to choose the first option that came to mind. It was the quickest and easiest way to do it anyways. Might as well get it over with. He turned to Matthew.

“I need you to trust me.”

Matthew arched an eyebrow. “I’ve always trusted you.”

“No, like, I _need_ you to trust me.”

“Chris, what are you going to do?”

“This is going to mean absolutely _nothing_. Got it? Nothing.”

“Uh, yeah, but really what are-”

Matthew soon got his answer. It seemed he was getting cut off a lot today. Chris had pressed his lips to Matthew’s. Now, Matthew definitely wasn’t opposed to kissing men at all. He had a few boyfriends in the past, and he had definitely enjoyed kissing them. However, when his literal best friend of six months kissed him out of nowhere, he was definitely equal parts confused and shocked. Chris wasn’t even a bad kisser. Hell, he was a pretty good one actually. Matthew would like to say he didn’t enjoy it a little, but a good kiss was a good kiss.

Chris, on the other hand, was dying internally. Why did he think this was a good idea? Yes he had wanted this for a long time, but he was insanely flustered. And this also really did mean nothing. Fucking Doctor Who, he knew he shouldn't have watched so much of it. He pulled away, and Matthew found himself trying to lean back into another kiss. Matthew opened his eyes, his face as pink as his hair. Well, that was certainly embarrassing.

“That was nothing, huh?” Matthew laughed, trying to break some of the tension.

“Yeah, nothing. There’s enough alien DNA on you now to get you past the forcefield and onto the ship.”

“Aw, Cheers, I’m hurt. You’re a pretty good kisser, shame that meant nothing.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Matthew smiled cheekily. He wasn’t going to let Chris live this down. It was just nothing, and Matthew knew he stole that idea from Doctor Who. Besides, it was fun to tease him. Chris himself was blushing now. He had somehow managed not to do that in front of Matthew before. Matthew noticed right away because-

“Holy shit, is your blood blue?”

“Just get on the damn ship already.”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “After you. I don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

Chris grabbed Matthew’s hand and dragged him to the entrance to the ship. Surprisingly, the door just opened whenever Chris touched the small panel beside it. Maybe these Zetas weren’t as smart as they seemed to be. Chris let go of Matthew and went on ahead. There didn’t seem to be anybody on the ship, but it didn’t hurt to check. Matthew searched for an outlet of some sort. After all, he would need to charge his phone sooner or later.

“Do you think I’ll be able to get cell service in space?” he asked loudly, not sure if Chris could hear him.

“Probably!” Chris answered. “There’s plenty of internet at least.”

The Zeta ship was empty. Not surprising since they had to go around and explain what was going on to the local people, and afterwards they just hung out doing much of nothing. Chris was relieved. He honestly didn’t want to have to deal with more than what he needed to today. Stealing a ship and getting off of a planet was hard enough, but doing that while trying to deal with the person you stole it from? That was nigh impossible. Not that Chris hadn’t done it of course. He had done a lot of things that should’ve been impossible.

“Alright, we’re all clear. Follow me.”

Matthew really didn’t feel like he had a choice. He had found an outlet, so his little adventure was over. He followed Chris into the cockpit and sat in one of the chairs.

“Don’t touch anything,” Chris said as soon as Matthew was about to touch something.

“You’re no fun,” he pouted.

“I don’t want us to die.”

“How will we die? There’s not a self destruct button is there?”

Chris said nothing. It had been awhile since he had been on a Zeta ship. Matthew crossed his arms. Then uncrossed them, and then crossed them again. He did this a few times, then tried to sit in his chair with his legs up on the seat. It wasn’t working very well.

“Can you stop that?” Chris asked. “It’s distracting.”

“It’s distracting,” Matthew repeated in some sort of mocking tone.

“Matthew.”

“Sorry.”

Chris pressed a few buttons, then checked the monitor above him. They were invisible. Matthew messed with the seatbelts for a bit before figuring out how they worked. “How come all of this is in English?”

“It’s not. Whenever I passed on all of that information to you back at my place, you learned about forty of the most common alien languages. French too!”

The ship hummed slightly. They were off the ground. Now it was time for the tricky part: leaving Earth for good. Chris had done riskier things before, but this was still going to be hard to pull off. He didn’t actually have to do any of the flying, but laying in the right course took time. Matthew was impressed with how fast Chris was working.

“This is going to feel a lot like riding a rollercoaster,” Chris explained, strapping himself in after he was done. “But ten times worse. For you at least. Hope you’re ready!”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

As soon as Matthew asked that, he knew. He had a very vivid flashback to whenever he was seven years old and went on a huge rollercoaster. He had thrown up immediately after, he blamed the drop. This felt like the drop he had experienced all those years ago, except now it was so much longer. Matthew was going to be so sick.

And just like that, it stopped. Matthew unbuckled himself and found the nearest trash can, or what he hoped was a trash can. There went his entire lunch and breakfast. Once he was done depositing his everything into whatever that was, he looked at the large display in front of the cockpit. They were in space. Matthew almost cried. He had wanted this since he was little.

“Cheers, it’s beautiful…”

“It is, isn’t it? Though, I have to mention that we’re far from Earth now. The first hyperspace jump is always the worst, sorry.”

“That was a hyperspace jump?”

“Yeah, how I managed to get past all of those ships while doing that was a miracle…”

They had done it. They had escaped from Earth on a stolen Zeta ship, and now they had the entire universe in front of them. Matthew smiled. This was a dream come true.

“Where do you want to go first?” Chris asked. “There’s some awfully beautiful planets around here, and-”

“What the hell is going on?”

As it turned out, the Zeta ship was not empty. Dominic was asleep in his quarters up until a few minutes ago which was the one place Chris _didn’t_ check. Great. Now he had a Zeta to deal with. Just when he thought his day was actually starting to go well.

“Why are you two on my ship?” Dominic asked. “And…”

He gasped, though it wasn’t out of awe. He was definitely, _definitely_ pissed off. “And what the hell are we doing in the Nadara System?”

“Well, you see,” Matthew started. “We uh-”

“It’s quite simple really,” Chris said, stepping on Matthew’s foot to shut him up. “We actually-”

Immediately, everything got worse. Chris expected it, Matthew definitely didn’t expect it, and Dominic just got more pissed. Now, Chris didn’t know what he did to deserve this, but the display in front of them showed bright yellow and orange flashing lights.

“Oh, great,” Dominic groaned. “It’s the fucking cops!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> godddd hello!! it’s been awhile but chapter two is here and uh expect chapters of these size or around them from now on  
> also i am absolutely bullshitting all science and taking everything i know about space travel from sci fi shows so don’t expect it to be too accurate


	3. Chapter 3

“The cops? What did we do?”

Matthew would like to say he handled stressful situations well. Matthew, however, would be lying because he always panicked when something went wrong. This time was no different. Well, it was actually worse since he never had a run-in with the police before, let alone ones in space. Guess there was a first time for everything!

While Matthew was on the verge of a panic attack, Chris was trying to come up with a way to bluff them out of an arrest. He had parked the ship, and that gave them at least five minutes until the officer boarded. They always liked to take their time. Now, had bluffed his way out of situations before, but things were a little complicated now. If the fucking Zeta wasn’t here, it’d be easier. Damn Zetas always ruining everything.

Speaking of the Zeta, Dominic was not handling this situation the best either. “What did _we_ do? There is no ‘we’, this is _your_ fault!”

“How is it our fault?” Matthew asked.

“Oh, I dunno, maybe because you stole my fucking ship! Ever think of that?”

“We didn’t know you were still here!”

“That doesn’t fucking justify you hijacking-”

“Would you two shut up and let me think?” Chris snapped. “I can’t focus while you’re yelling…”

Dominic scowled. “Oh, who put you in charge?”

“Shut it, Zeta.” 

“I have a name you asshole.”

“Shut up! I need to come up with something.”

Before Dominic could start yelling again, and stars know he wanted to, the officer who pulled them over beamed onto the ship.

“Oh _fuck_ ,” Chris whispered.

Just their luck. The policeman happened to be a Mork. They looked as ugly as their name sounded. Picture a troll, make it grey, and make it look really, _really_ big. And stupid. Big and stupid was actually the best way to describe these things. It’s usually why they ended up becoming police officers in the first place. Unfortunately, this one seemed to be actually somewhat intelligent judging by his confusion. Or he could’ve been wondering what he was going to have for lunch. Chris couldn’t really tell at this point.

“What seems to be the problem officer?” Chris asked, plastering a grin on his face. There went plans A through E. Maybe if he had actual _silence_ he could’ve come up with better some half decent plan...

‘What’s he doing?’ Matthew mouthed to Dominic. 

Dominic shrugged. Hell if he knew.

The Mork sniffed. “Speeding. Though, figured out you were doing a hyperspace jump. Can’t charge you with that. But…” 

He scratched his ugly head. “Now there’s another issue.”

“What other issue?” Chris asked, digging himself into a deeper hole.

Dominic was convinced that Chris was out of his fucking mind. Matthew, on the other hand, was convinced that they were going to die. Or at the very least actually get arrested, which was the more likely option. Or at least he sure hoped it was. He didn’t want to die his first day out in space. That would be a fucking tragedy.

“Zeta ship,” the Mork grunted. “Two non-Zetas. Explain.”

That definitely was a problem. Matthew was as white as a sheet at this point. Now he was _really_ convinced they were going to die even though that probably wasn’t going to be the case. Chris stuttered over his words, trying to find an excuse.

And then Dominic cleared this throat to get the Mork’s attention.

“Yeah, hey big guy, over here. If you couldn’t tell already, I’m the Zeta that belongs on this ship, yeah?”

The Mork blinked. “I guess so.” 

“Right, right. Well, you see, these two Terrans here-”

Chris looked offended. Dominic ignored him. He couldn’t afford to be distracted now. 

“-they uh...were trying to resist us from taking over. Standard procedure calls for them to be punished. And there is a really lovely ice planet around here that’ll be perfect for that.”

“That was really bad,” Matthew whispered hopelessly. They might as well be put in handcuffs right now.

It was good enough for the Mork apparently because he grunted in affirmation. One could never doubt their sheer stupidity. “Sorry for wasting your time. Don’t get into more trouble.”

And just like that, the brute was gone as soon as he arrived. About time too, Matthew was about to pass out from holding his breath.

“You’re welcome,” Dominic said, putting his hands on his hips. “Now, I want you two off of my ship, okay?”

“And do you suggest we do that?” Matthew asked. “We’re stuck here with you. Sorry mate.”

Dominic nearly choked. “ _Mate?_ ”

Chris pinched the bridge of his nose while Matthew floundered to come up with some means of replying. “He didn’t mean…’mate’ is a term humans use to be friendly.”

“And I don't know your name anyway,” Matthew added quietly, rubbing his neck. 

“It’s Dominic.”

“That sounds awfully human,” Matthew pointed out. Humans tended to do that, Chris noticed. They were always saying things that stared them directly in the face.

“Thank you captain obvious, it is. Higher ups assigned us Terran names, which was a load of bullshit. I’ve grown fond of mine though.” 

Dominic paused. “What about you, Terran?”

“Matthew. Everyone calls me Matt though.”

“And by everyone, he means me. I’m Chris.”

Dominic stared at him for a moment. Then he cocked his head to the side, much like a confused puppy would. There was nothing cute about the gesture though. “That’s not your real name, is it?”

“That’s not important,” Chris frowned.

“What species are you?” 

“Why?”

Dominic scoffed. “I’d at least like to know what I’m dealing with.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Matthew decided that finding somewhere to sleep was a better use of his time than listening to Chris and Dominic argue. He had made sure to collect all of his things from the cockpit before leaving, but he left his phone to charge at the outlet he found. Guitar in hand and backpack hanging off one shoulder, Matthew went searching for the bedrooms. The ship was fairly small, so finding them wasn’t too hard. However, it seemed like he would have to room by himself. There were only two rooms, and there was no way in hell that he was going to room with Dominic. Dominic probably didn’t want him in his room anyways, and he would rather let Chris deal with that.

Inside, there were two beds, a desk, two nightstands with lamps on each of them, and some weird panel on the wall. It was...bland. Everything was varying shades of grey and white. Zetas really should improve their interior design skills, Matthew thought. Depositing his backpack and guitar on the ground carefully (because those things were fucking _expensive_ ), he went to investigate the panel on the wall. On closer inspection, it wasn’t a panel, but actually some sort of materializer. It kind of looked like an oven but without the dials. In fact, it was almost exactly like the one in Star Trek! Years of following one series had finally paid off.

“Uh...computer?” he asked.

Nothing. “Hello?” Nothing. “What do you do?”

“Make food, obviously,” a robotic voice answered, causing Matthew to jump slightly. “It’s what a SAM does. Have you ever used one of us before?”

SAM stood for “Synthetically Altered Matter”, but no one wanted to say that. The SAM units on Zeta ships served one purpose: making food. But they were also known for their sarcasm since they were programmed with a personality. Matthew wasn’t taking well to it. “No, first time being on a spaceship. Not exactly an alien.”

“Kid, you’re all aliens to me.”

Matthew shrugged. “I suppose that’s true...but how do I get food, er…SAM?”

“You ask. Nicely. I don’t take well to snark,” it replied snarkily.

“You’re one to talk,” Matthew muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing! I, uh, could I have some spaghetti? Please?” 

All of five seconds later, a plate of spaghetti appeared in the materializer. Matthew grabbed the plate and the fork that came with it, thanked the little unit, and sat on his bed to eat. He felt rather silly for thanking an inanimate object but assumed it was the best thing to do.

SAM hummed mechanically. “Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, don’t eat that too quickly. There might be some side effects if this is your first time up here.” 

Matthew had already eaten a good half of his spaghetti. He was starving after throwing up everything earlier. He looked up, his mouth still half full. “Uh, like what..?”

“Well, since I’ve gathered that you’re human, I know your body isn’t accustomed to what I make the food out of, since of course, I can’t just zap food out of thin air,” SAM replied. “It could make you very sick. Make sure to eat slowly!”

Matthew swallowed. He wasn’t very hungry anymore. “Sick how?”

“Oh, just hives, fever, sweating, dizziness, nausea, and in the worst case scenario, death! That’s only if it goes untreated, of course.” 

Matthew felt like he was about to throw up again. He set the plate of not-spaghetti on the nightstand, and that’s when he noticed the hives forming on his arms. Well, that definitely wasn’t ideal. Maybe he was right about dying the first day out in space. He stood up, soon realizing that was the worst decision he had ever made. The _largest_ wave of dizziness that he had ever experienced him, and he very nearly fell over on the spot. He could do this. He just needed to tell Chris and Dominic what was going on.

And thus began his slow journey back to the cockpit. He really hoped that the two of them were still there. It really wouldn’t be ideal if he just dropped dead in the middle of the hallway. He swayed forwards, gripping the wall for support. Why did this ship feel so much bigger now? He could’ve sworn this hallway wasn’t this long before.

It took him five minutes to complete a one minute walk. He was out of breath, sweating, and freezing his ass off all at once. What was that spaghetti made out of? 

Dominic and Chris were still arguing, but they were arguing about something else now.

“-he’s not going to make it out here!” Dominic said. “Especially not with _you_.”

“Oh come off it, he’ll be fine.”

Oh, they were arguing about him. How lovely. Matthew cleared his throat. Chris and Dominic looked over at him, and both of them shared the same look of shock Or fear. Or confusion. Matthew couldn’t tell right now, everything was a bit blurry. “Cheers, Dominic, I don’t feel good. I need…”

And then he passed out. Just straight up collapsed onto the floor.

Dominic had seen stranger things happen on this ship before, but this was absolutely fucking concerning. Then he noticed how _pale_ Matthew was. Assuming that he had been in one of the rooms…

Goddammit, Matthew had used the SAM. Terrans were curious, he could respect that, but they were plain _stupid_ sometimes. How they survived for so long was beyond Dominic.

Chris stared at Matthew, too stunned to even move. “Did he just..?”

“Yeah, he sure did. He’s got hives already, fucking hell…”

Chris snapped out of his stupor and knelt beside Matthew. Sure enough, he was showing signs of sickness. Chris pressed his hand against Matthew’s forehead. He was burning up. Chris swore. “What‘d he do?” 

“Ate food one of the units made I assume. Haven’t ever seen it this bad before though...” 

Chris turned Matthew onto his back, carefully moving the hair out of his face. Matthew shivered. He needed help, and he needed it fast.

“Do you know any doctors?” Dominic asked, biting his nails. “At this rate, he’ll be dead in a few hours.”

“Yeah,” Chris grunted, picking Matthew up. He chose to ignore Dominic’s second comment. “A few. One of them is close actually.”

“Tell me where to go, we need to get there quickly.”

“Could’ve figured that one out myself, genius. Whatever, anyways, lay in a course for Epsilon-9…”

—

Epsilon-9 was a rather nice planet, similar to Earth in size and climate. There were also very similar political issues, though the inhabitants didn’t enjoy discussing that aspect. Thousands of species lived throughout the six continents, living their lives as best as they could while their world was figuratively on fire. They were happy when ignoring all of that. It was better not to bring it up, unless of course you wanted to make someone angry. And why would you want to do that? It was just plain rude.

One of the inhabitants was very busy. He was always very busy. Treating dozens of patients each day was very taxing, as one might imagine. It was also taxing because he could sense what they were feeling and know what they were thinking since he was so close to them all the time. This man was very lucky to have a psychologist in the building, it was never easy going through this alone.

His name was Thomas Kirk, or Tom for short. No one ever called him Thomas except for his mother. He didn’t really fancy being called Thomas in the first place. Too formal in his opinion. It just didn’t suit him.

Tom finally was on his lunch break, finally settled in the break room. The chairs were very cozy in his opinion. He might’ve taken the break a _few_ hours later than he should’ve, but he couldn’t afford to eat whenever he was dealing with an outbreak of cosmipox. But his staff assured him that he could take a break after he almost passed out from exhaustion.

How nice of them, he thought as he unwrapped the paper his sandwich was in. They were a very considerate group of people.

Just as he was about to take a bite of his sandwich, his HoloPhone had begun to ring. He frowned. Tom knew he should just ignore it and eat, but what if it was important? He bit into his sandwich, trying to actually not worry for once. It was probably just a spam call, nothing more. He got a lot of those recently. Tom sighed, almost relieved, whenever it stopped. But then it just started ringing again. Okay, maybe it was important. He took the HoloPhone out of his pocket and set it on the table in front of him. The number was...familiar somehow. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. Tom pressed the ‘accept call’ button.

The easiest way to describe how HoloPhones worked would be to compare them to an outdated mechanic used by one of the largest companies in the universe, Apple. While you may be surprised to learn that Apple was present in the further parts of space, it really wasn’t all that uncommon. After all, where do you think humans got the ideas for computers? Or even companies like Amazon? Humans weren’t very creative, really. They prided themselves on stealing things that weren’t theirs and claiming them as their own.

But at any rate, HoloPhones were similar to video calls, much like Facetime. But unlike them, HoloPhones made 3D models of the people that it could see. It worked with all sorts of starships, even if they didn’t have 3D projections like the phones themselves, which was nice because audio calls were just boring. Not that Tom couldn’t receive them, he just didn’t like them. And Tom’s version had full color rendering. That had cost him some extra money, but black and white holograms were in bad taste. 

The call connected. Tom grinned brightly. “Hey there!”

Chris smiled himself. The last time he saw Tom was years ago, and that had been a wild time. They had almost gotten killed. Luckily, Tom didn’t hold it against him. “Hey Tom, I need a favor. You, uh, see the person I’m holding? His name is Matt.”

Tom nodded. He had spectacularly bright red hair. That amused Tom for some reason. He avoided looking at the Zeta. Dominic avoided looking at him. Recognizing the number had decidedly been a bad thing, Tom thought. Just his luck that he’d encounter _this_ Zeta again.

“Yeah, yeah I see him. What’s up?”

Chris laughed nervously. “Well, you know the SAM units Zeta ships have?”

“I do, yes,” Tom answered. He sounded quite bitter. A muscle in Dominic’s jaw twitched, and he thought he could busy himself by messing with some controls. 

“Matt wasn’t used to what the unit made the food out of. And being a human-” 

“A human?” Tom asked excitedly, forgetting all about how bitter he was moments before. Dominic muttered something under his breath that wasn’t very pleasant. Chris frowned at him. What the hell was his problem?

“A human, yes, and you know how they work, yeah? He ate too fast, and his body couldn’t handle it. Now...now he’s sick.”

Even though his display wasn’t that large, Tom could see the hives. Not good at all. He swore he could sense how worried Chris was from here. That was silly though, his abilities had a very limited range. “How long has it been?”

“Thirty minutes, and we’re wasting time,” Dominic spat. “Are you gonna help us or not?”

Tom narrowed his eyes. He thought he could be civil for once, but apparently the Zeta had other plans. “I’m not going to let him die, no. I’ll lock onto Chris and Matt to get them down here, but _you_ stay. I don’t want to deal with you again.”

“Fine! I didn’t want to go in the first place.”

Dominic crossed his arms and avoided looking at the screen again. Chris thought that this was all very childish. “Tom, please hurry.”

Tom nodded, then rolled back his chair to the other computer. He pressed a few buttons, and thanks to the coordinates on his HoloPhone, he was able to locate Matt and Chris. He returned a few seconds after starting the countdown. “We’re, um, ready for you. Now, I was told that I shouldn’t exert myself too much, but-”

“How long until we beam down?” Chris asked.

“Forty seconds, more or less.”

And just like that, the call was over. Chris had thirty four seconds left on board for now. He sighed. “What’s your problem with Tom? Is he an ex or something?”

Dominic looked at Chris like he had just asked him to do a handstand while reciting the Zetian alphabet backwards. “He’s a _Solonia_ ,” he hissed. “I could tell by looking at him. He had the marking of one under his eye.” 

Solonias were a race of fairly peaceful people most of the time, and many of them had some sort of psychic ability. In Tom’s case, he could feel the emotions of others but only if they were around him. He could also feel them more directly if he was touching someone, which sometimes proved to be a problem. The same thing went for his telepathy. Solonias were scattered all across the universe, though most of them preferred to stay in their home system.

They also hated Zetas due to something in their ancient histories. Zetas returned the sentiment. 

Twenty-two seconds. Chris shifted Matthew in his arms, who then groaned. He was going in and out of it, but he swore that he was being carried off by some angel. There were worse ways to get up to heaven, he supposed. Matthew promptly passed out after having that thought.

Eighteen. “Why are they a problem?” 

“I don’t want to explain,” Dominic sighed. “I’m sure _he’d_ tell you differently. They’re just...” He gestured vaguely. “A fucking problem.”

Twelve. Chris’ arms were getting tired. He hoped that there would be somewhere to put Matthew down once they arrived. That would be quite nice. He remembered some things about this planet-

Alas, it wasn’t quite forty seconds before they were beamed down. It was instantaneous, though when unexpected, it could cause a lot of dizziness. Chris almost fell forward. If someone wasn’t there to catch him, he would’ve squashed Matthew under him. That someone happened to be Tom himself. He had sprinted across the hospital to be able to meet them.

He smiled, out of breath. “Let’s get him fixed up shall we?”

—

Dominic sat in his ship, miserable. Damn Solonias. Of course Chris’ doctor friend was one, and the one he ran into personally. Why wouldn’t he be? The bad luck streak Dominic had was ever growing. Sure, Tom might’ve _changed_ or something, but Dominic just wasn’t buying into it. Whatever. He just hoped Matthew was okay.

Matthew, in theory, was okay. He was awake after being administered a bunch of medicines, and he could function well enough. He was laid in one of those hospital beds, and he was glad that he wasn’t in a medical gown. However, he was in pain, and Tom really wasn’t helping his headache. He had been rambling on and asking Matthew questions about humans and how they “worked” (his words). Tom claimed that there wasn’t any better resource on humans than humans themselves. That was true enough, but Matthew could barely keep up with him at this point. Tom sensed that Matthew was getting annoyed, but he didn’t care. Seeing a human out in this region of space was practically unheard of.

“...and how do you even _survive_ with one heart? I mean, for races that look like you and I, it’s pretty uncommon. Out here, I mean.”

“How many do you have?” Matthew asked groggily. His head was _pounding.”_  

“Two!” Tom answered. “Chris is also a bit of an anomaly because I don’t know exactly how many he has.” 

Chris rolled his eyes. Not this again. “He’s been dying to take a look at me for ages now. But I haven’t let him.” 

“Why not?” 

“Don’t like being poked and prodded,” he shrugged. 

There was another reason that Chris refused to let Tom even come near him with his medical stuff, but that’s a touchy subject. Matthew seemed satisfied with that answer though.

“Hey, Tom, what’s that purple mark under your eye?” 

Tom subconsciously touched the small mark. It was something all Solonias were born with, though they ranged in color, though most of the population had red marks. Tom was special: a purple mark meant he had two abilities instead of just one. He didn’t want to explain that though. “Nothing special, don’t worry.”

That sounded good to Matthew. The bed he was resting in was starting to get uncomfortable. He didn’t want to move too much though since that could lead to other problems. And he was awfully tired anyways. Maybe if he just closed his eyes… 

The alarms in the hospital went off just as he was about to try to nap. Chris instinctively grabbed Matthew’s arm. It was a habit he had picked up back on Earth. Matthew tended to put himself in dangerous situations, so Chris always had to be close by to protect him.

Tom swore in a language that Matthew couldn’t recognize somehow. “If this is another mock emergency…”

_“This is not a drill. This is not a drill. The hospital is in danger. Please evacuate immediately. If you cannot, arm yourselves.”_

Tom’s HoloPhone began to rang. Begrudgingly, he answered it. Dominic was panicking, though otherwise he was alright. “Hey, uh, there are like...some black ships? They’re not attacking me since I put up the cloaking device, but some of them went down onto the planet-”

“Oh, starpox! We know this!” Tom groaned. “Does your ship have warping abilities? We’re under attack, and I really would prefer if we all lived.”

Dominic narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, it does. But I’m only warping Chris and Matt-”

Chris was getting awfully tired of all of this bickering. And when he was annoyed, it showed. “Dominic, stop being a fucking cunt and warp us up. He’s a living being too, and he’s a friend of mine.”

“The hospital will know he’s gone!” Dominic spat back.

“They’ll think I’m dead, _Zeta._ Perished, eaten, whatever!”

Matthew’s head was spinning faster and faster. The only thing keeping him from completely panicking completely was Chris’ hand on his arm. He would be alright, he felt.

He didn’t feel that way for long. The building shook. There was a series of small explosions, shouting and gunfire. They would be dead in a matter of minutes, and Dominic and Tom were _still_ fighting. Matthew was getting annoyed himself.

“Shut up!” Matthew blurted out. “Both of you, shut up! Dom, get all of us out of here or we will _die._ I don’t want to die!” 

Dominic huffed. “Only because I tolerate you, Terran. And Chris too.”

The attackers entered their room. They were smaller than Matthew was imagining. Definitely less threatening. They were actually kind of cute, really. They were small, catlike creatures in little spacesuits, big blue eyes, and oh those were very, very sharp teeth. A mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Matthew grabbed Chris’ hand for some sort of comfort. “What are they?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Chris replied. It did matter, but he didn’t want to scare Matthew even more. “They like attacking hospitals because it’s easy to choose a meal here. Just don’t move again, we should be okay…”

Tom was frozen to the spot. He had only seen these things as cadavers and in diagrams. He knew exactly what they were capable of and how painful it would be. He knew that they would be fine, hopefully, but it was really easy to panic in a time like this. Especially when he felt Chris’ and Matthew’s fear on top of his own. “Dominic, beam us up. Now.”

“I’m getting there,” Dominic muttered. “I’m trying to lock onto you, but it’s not exactly easy...” 

Tom hung up the phone. One of the things sniffed the air. Matthew gripped Chris’ hand tighter. Chris closed his eyes and began to whisper an ancient prayer he had learned when he was a young boy. He wasn’t particularly religious nowadays, but in times like these it was hard not to revert back to old ways. The small creature then stared directly Matthew. It made a low rumbling noise, deep in its throat.

“What’s it doing?” Matthew whispered.

“Deciding if you’re a good meal or not,” Tom answered. His stutter was terrible. Matthew could barely understand him.

Then, the thing lunged at Matthew, its rows of teeth bared. Luckily, it was at that moment Dominic had decided it was a time to beam them up. All three of them were transported into the cockpit. Dominic turned around. He wasn’t happy about Tom being on board, but whatever.

Chris scrambled to sit up. His head was throbbing like he had a bad hangover. Matthew was beside him, trembling a great deal. His life had flashed before his eyes, not that it had been exciting or anything. But now he realized just how homesick he was, even on day one. He could never go back to Earth again. Not unless he wanted to be enslaved. His family was still down there. All of his friends. And here he was, sitting in a spaceship after almost dying. Not to mention, he had basically been poisoned five minutes after he thought he was going to space jail.

Matthew never was all too emotional in his mind, but at this point it seemed appropriate to cry. The day had started out good, but now it had gone to shit. He curled up into a ball and sobbed. Chris’ heart ached. He touched Matthew’s shoulder gently. “You alright?”

The question only made Matthew cry harder. Chris looked to Tom for guidance. He didn’t know what to do, so he (begrudgingly) looked at Dominic. The Zeta sighed. He grabbed the back of Matthew’s shirt and pulled him up. Matthew was still blubbering pathetically. Dominic stared at the sad sight of a man before him, a subtle frown gracing his features. “You almost died, right?”

Matthew nodded. “Mhm…”

“But you’re alive, you didn’t die. You’re happy for that, right?”

“I guess,” Matthew mumbled. He was crying less now, which made Dominic happy.

“But you’re still sad. You’re far away from home...are you homesick?”

Matthew tried not to burst into tears again, but he was straining to do so. Dominic had studied human tendencies, and so he pulled Matthew in for a hug. Matthew buried his face into Dominic’s shoulder. Dominic didn’t really know how to comfort. It was never anything he was good at. He rubbed Matthew’s back, sighing again. “It’s okay. I know how it feels.”

Matthew hugged Dominic like his life depended on it. Tom felt an _extreme_ wave of jealousy coming from Chris’ direction. He turned to see that Chris was staring holes into the floor. Now, he really didn’t like snooping on other people’s love lives, but it was clear that Chris definitely had a thing for Matthew. Chris would deny it since he didn’t want anyone else to know.

“You’re rooming with Dominic,” Chris said to Tom icily.

Tom looked at Chris like he had just stabbed his mother in front of him and just left. “I am _not_ staying in a room with him!” 

Matthew groaned.  He couldn’t take more fighting. He let go of Dominic and stumbled forward, lightheaded from how much he had been crying. “I’ll fucking stay with Dom, okay? I just need to move a few things. For the love of christ, no more fighting…”

He went off to go move his things into the other room. Chris collected himself for a moment. He was fine, he was totally fine and not jealous that Matthew went to Dominic for comfort. It wasn’t like he and Matthew were best friends or anything, right? Or, y’know, Chris was the first person he had cried in front of? No, no, it would be silly to be jealous over this.

“Let’s get outta here,” Chris said as he flipped some switches. Dominic slapped his hands a few times, but that didn’t deter him.

“Stop touching my ship!”

Too late. Chris had initiated another hyperspace jump. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the first, mainly because they were actually _in_ space and not leaving a planet. All the Zeta ship did was lurch forward a little. They were in an entirely different system now. Chris, much to the annoyance of Dom, put them into orbit around a small planet.

“What are we doing?” Tom asked.

“Getting a new ship,” Chris replied nonchalantly.

Dominic threw his hands up in the air dramatically. “We’re abandoning my ship?”

“Of course, it’s stolen and we’re probably wanted by the Zetian government,” Chris shrugged. “Defectors always get shot down. Besides, I know someone-”

Something hit the hull of the ship. It didn’t sound too friendly. The whole ship rattled from the force of whatever it was, and before anyone knew what was happening, they were hurtling directly into the planet’s atmosphere. Matthew, however, was none the wiser. He had passed out again, completely content on his bed. Once he was asleep, it was nigh impossible to wake him up, even if he was falling to imminent doom.

What better way than to go out in your sleep?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it’s been a few months! sorry about that, school has been rough. i’ll try to update more often since it’s the end of the year! thank you for being patient ^^


End file.
